By Omeiza Ajayi
The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council APC-PCC has accused former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the African Democratic Congress ADC of plotting to use Artificial Intelligence deepfake videos and counterfeit documents to discredit the party’s presidential campaign flag-off in Kaduna today.
In a statement on Saturday, the council’s Spokesperson, Dele Alake, said: “We have uncovered a well-orchestrated, devious plan by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his party to discredit the All Progressives Congress presidential campaign flag-off in Kaduna today, Saturday, October 24th, 2026.”
According to the council, the ADC and its presidential candidate “have perfected their plans to misinform and disinform the public, manipulate public opinion through fake news operations and planting of false news in mainstream news platforms and social media with the use of Artificial Intelligence, deepfake videos, and counterfeit documents.”
The statement said the target was the Kaduna rally, President Bola Tinubu, Governor Uba Sani and leaders of the party.
It said the tactics had already been deployed in the last 24 hours, beginning with “the mischievous release of a picture of a security vehicle on a routine patrol, innocuously stationed at a junction near one of APC’s numerous campaign billboards in Kaduna metropolis.”
The council claimed that Atiku and the ADC “twisted the narrative, claiming the security agents were there to protect the APC billboards in Kaduna,” and then planted the story in “a national newspaper known for its anti-government and anti-APC editorial stance.”
“Immediately after the newspaper published the fake, distorted story, Atiku Abubakar, in a coordinated manner, latched onto it and shared it on his official social media handles to generate traffic and trends,” the statement said.
The second incident, it said, was a fake letter released online, “purportedly written by Governor Uba Sani and addressed to the Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Abdulaziz Yari, on the release of N2.3 trillion by the Kaduna State Government to host the APC rally.”
The council however dismissed the claim as absurd. “We are still at a loss as to how anyone can imagine and concoct this senseless and utterly baseless lie that defies logic and basic common sense. How much is the entire annual revenue of Kaduna State, or any state, for that matter, that a state would spend N2.3 trillion to host a rally? The N2.3 trillion that Atiku and his hirelings are circulating online is more than Kaduna State’s annual budget for three years.
“For context, the combined Kaduna State budgets for 2024 (N458.271 billion), 2025 (N790.439 billion), and 2026 (N985.9 billion) are still less than N2.3 trillion,” the statement said.
The council warned that these two incidents were only part of a bigger scheme. “The ADC and Atiku’s hirelings have also perfected plans to circulate old, doctored, and deepfake videos as the rally gets underway later today to show purported resentment by the people.
“It is a fact that Atiku Abubakar and the ADC, his special-purpose vehicle, are incapable of winning any election. They will pull any strings, no matter how despicable and atrocious, to stay afloat in their desperate bid to grab power at all costs.
“We urge Nigerians to be vigilant and reject their machinations,” the statement said.
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